Madison Nicole "Maddie" Ziegler, (born on September 30, 2002) to Melissa Gisoni and Kurt Ziegler, is an American dancer, actress, model, and television personality. Maddie rise to fame began at the age of seven when she competed on the popular CBS televised dance competition (judged by famous dancers such as Paula Abdul), Live to Dance. Although her episode never aired due the show's cancellation, there are clips of her performing on the show online. One year later, Maddie had another television opportunity when her mother signed her, as well as her younger sister Mackenzie, onto Lifetime's popular reality television show Dance Moms. The show follows young girls and their mothers across the United States to various dance competitions.

Maddie's most famous work includes starring in Sia's music video "Elastic Heart" alongside actor Shia LaBeouf. The music video has gotten much negative reception, with many critics and viewers claiming that the intimate choreography between the two stars could be viewed as pedophilia. Sia has clarified that she did not intend for it to come across this way, and that Maddie and Shia are both supposed to be portray in werewolves you have been trying to escape the cage enclosure they are trapped in for years. However, both the "Chandelier" and "Elastic Heart" music videos have made Ziegler into a worldwide dancing phenomenon.She even starred in Sia's "Big Girls Cry" music video. As of April 2017, "Chandelier" music video has over 1.5 billion views and is the 16th most viewed YouTube video of all time. Around this time, Maddie performed on the Ellen DeGeneres Show again, as well as Saturday Night Live. Maddie also began working on her acting in 2015, having felt inspired by her emotional work in the Sia videos. She gave a small dance performance in the popular teen drama Pretty Little Liars, which was followed by acting parts in the shows Austin and Ally and Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn.

In January 2016, Maddie won the People's Choice Award for DailyMail's Seriously Popular. Though at first she denied it, it was made official that the current season of Dance Moms will be her last; as Maddie & Mackenzie are leaving the show after the current season. The official announcement was made in February 2016. Shortly after, Maddie was hired as the new judge for So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation. Maddie wrote her own autobiography called The Maddie Diaries, which quickly became a New York Times bestseller. Also in 2016, Maddie began working on her film career. The first to be released was an animated movie called Ballerina, in which she voiced the role of Camille. The Book of Henry, Ziegler's first live-action film, was released in 2017. She held a lead role in the film as pre-teen Christina Sickleman. In addition to these two films, Maddie is set to star in Sia's upcoming movie entitled Sister, in which she will play the autistic sister of a drug dealer. In September 2017, Sia released a new video for Rainbow---a songtrack for my little pony's movie, with Maddie starred in it.

Since their departure from reality television, the Ziegler family has made it known that they do not intend to return to reality TV, and do not regret their decision to leave Dance Moms.